English
High school teachers from across the country will converge in Bloomington July 6 for a four-week Picturing John James Audubon institute at Indiana University, the first of its kind. The institute is directed by Indiana University English Professor Christoph Irmscher (Alita Hornick from the IU Department of English helped organize the institute), and funded by a $200,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities through its Picturing America series of summer seminars and institutes for high school teachers. The institute will feature experts on Audubon, American art and natural history.
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Lexical much? In his new book, Slang: The People's Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2009), Indiana University Assistant Professor Michael Adams describes -- and passionately defends -- slang as the creative expression of the every day. The first major work on American slang in nearly a decade, Slang neatly bridges the gap between pop culture and academia with a thorough examination of the ways Americans continually reinvent or combine words to keep language a living, breathing entity.
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In her new book, Judas: A Biography, IU Distinguished Professor of English Susan Gubar delves into how Judas became a symbol of the Jewish people. She analyzes how Judas personifies a composite Judeo-Christianity that illuminates ambivalent relationships between Christians and Jews -- as well as changing attitudes toward the body, blood and money; greed and hypocrisy; suicide and repentance; and homosexuality and divinity. In the April 12 New York Times Sunday Book Review, Judas: A Biography was named to the Editors' Choice list.
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A lecture by Jenny 8. Lee, a reporter for the New York Times and author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, and the annual Taste of Asia and AsianFest events will highlight IU's early observance of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, which honors the rich history and presence of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States.
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Called "one of the greatest writers of our time" by the late novelist John Gardner, award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates will read and lecture at Indiana University's Indiana Memorial Union on Feb. 16 at 5 p.m. The lecture is part of a "Cultural Conflicts" series presented by the College Arts and Humanities Institute (CAHI). CAHI is financed by IU's College of Arts and Sciences to foster interdisciplinary research and cooperation among arts and humanities faculty.
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Born and raised in Bloomington, Meg Cabot majored in fine arts at IU and worked as an illustrator for years before taking a chance on a writing career. Years of rejection later, Cabot won a contract with St. Martin's Press, through which she eventually published The Princess Diaries, the young-adult novel that would spawn a book and film series and alter the course of her career. Cabot will be honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award at the 2008 College of Arts and Sciences Annual Recognition Banquet on Friday, Nov. 7.
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